Slipping Through Skin: A Solo Exhibition by Louise Howard

Following a successful solo exhibition, In Catfood and Wine, and a series of shows throughout 2025, London-based contemporary artist returns with a new body of work, Slipping Through Skin, opening at General Assembly this May.

The exhibition features eight large-scale figurative paintings exploring the tension between visibility and psychological depth. Howard’s figures (always women) appear emotionally present but inwardly guarded, occupying space without fully revealing themselves.

While In Catfood and Wine expanded Howard’s palette and introduced new motifs such as hyperrealistic hands, Slipping Through Skin focuses on scale, layered textures and composition. The paintings consider how identity and emotion can remain intact even under public gaze. In a cultural moment often defined by constant exposure and self-disclosure, Howard’s work proposes an alternative stance. Her subjects are visible and present, yet they maintain a sense of autonomy and opacity, suggesting that it is possible to be seen without surrendering personal depth.

Howard examines how painting can hold vulnerability and authority simultaneously. The figures command attention while maintaining a sense of opacity, present but not fully accessible.

Louise is a London-based contemporary artist known for her unique fusion of realism and abstraction in her paintings.

With a career spanning over a decade, she has exhibited her work internationally in the US, UK and Australia, earning recognition for her emotionally charged and thought-provoking pieces and establishing her as a distinctive voice in the contemporary art world.

Her work, often centered on the female form, uses a refined colour palette to craft deeply emotional and evocative faces. Louise also draws inspiration from her personal experiences, and counts Lucian Freud among her key artistic influences.

Praise for Louise Howard’s Work:

MADE IN BED: “Howard’s works are an open book, set to be read as the story that each viewer needs.”

SW Londoner: “Her use of oil paints, complemented by mixed media, creates rich textures, while moody tones interwoven with bursts of colour capture the duality of life’s challenges and joys.”

London Art Roundup: “Photorealistic faces, mice and cats mixed with abstracted figurative and collaged newspaper strips? Why yes, that’s a mix worth trying at least once.”

London Daily News: “In Catfood & Wine never feels overly referential or sentimental. Instead, the works act as emotional touchstones—small altars to persistence, survival, and softness.”

Find out more about Louise here: https://louisehowardart.com/

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